Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib Document

How Can the Destitution of Soul in Modern Times Be Overcome?

Social UnderstandingLiberty of ThoughtKnowledge of the Spirit

Schmidt Number: S-3274

On-line since: 24th April, 2007

A Lecture given
by Rudolf Steiner
Zurich, October 10th, 1916
GA 168

This is the 4th of 8 lectures given by Rudolf Steiner at Zurich,
from February through October of 1916. The title of this series of
lectures is:
The Relation between the Living and the Dead.
It has been published in typescript form under the title:
The Event of Death and Facts about the Time.
They were published in German as:
Die Verbindung Zwischen Lebenden und Toten.

This particular lecture is known by these names:
How Can the Psychological Stress of Today be Overcome?,
How Can the Destitution of Soul in Modern Times ..., or
Human Relations in the Age of the Spiritual Soul.
The translator is unknown. It is presented here with the kind
permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach,
Switzerland. From GA# 168.

This e.Text edition is provided through the wonderful work of:Various e.Text Transcribers

Thanks to an anonymous donor, this lecture has been made available to everyone.

For
Members of the Anthroposophical Society,
Not to be copied.
Z 323.

HOW
CAN THE DESTITUTION OF SOUL IN MODERN TIMES BE OVERCOME? —
SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING —
LIBERTY OF THOUGHT —
KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPIRIT.

A
lecture given by Rudolf Steiner in Zurich,
10th October, 1916.

Duplicated
as manuscript with the kind permission of the Rudolf
Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland, by whom all rights
are reserved.

Zurich, 10th October 1916.

The truths we look for in spiritual science should not
be dead facts, but should bring with them understanding of such a
vital kind that it finds entrance into life in all circumstances and
at every point. Taken in the abstract, as is often the case at
present, spiritual science may seem to offer a diluted and
unproductive kind of knowledge, and it is natural that people who
know very little about it should be induced to ask: What, after all,
is the use of learning that man consists of such and such parts; that
humanity has developed, and will develop further, through different
epochs of culture, and so on? Those who feel that a realistic
attitude is demanded by modern life find spiritual science
unprofitable. And it is often applied in an unprofitable way,
even by its most devoted adherents.

Nevertheless, spiritual science itself is infinitely
alive, and is something which in the course of time can and must
bring life into our most external concerns. I should like to make
this clear today by a particular example. Most of us know that our
present age was preceded by the so-called fourth post-Atlantean
culture epoch, during which the most important peoples were the
Greeks and Romans; that the following centuries down to the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries continued to be influenced by
impulses preceding from that epoch; and that since the fifteenth
century mankind has been living in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch,
into which we ourselves in our present incarnation have been born and
in which humanity will be living for many hundreds of years to come.
We know furthermore that in man in the fourth post-Atlantean period
of civilisation — the Graeco-Roman epoch — was built up
pre-eminently the so-called intellectual soul through external
culture and work and that cultivation of the consciousness soul is
our present task. What does the cultivation of the consciousness soul
mean? This abstract statement, rightly understood, contains the
destiny of mankind for our entire fifth post-Atlantean period. In
order that the consciousness soul may be brought to expression,
the various peoples of this period of culture should work together.
All the conditions and circumstances of life proclaim this truth; on
all sides we find it confirmed that our age stands for the
development of the consciousness soul.

Human life was completely different in the preceding
Graeco-Roman period when, according to the stage of development
mankind had reached, the faculties of intellect and of feeling were
bestowed upon them. Intellect covers a wide field; today this is not
sufficiently understood. In their soul-life the Greeks and Romans
were dependent upon it in a different way from ourselves in the fifth
post-Atlantean period. They received the intellect, in so far as they
needed to make use of it, “ready-made”, as a natural
tendency of their stage of development; there was no need to
cultivate it as we must do at present, and as will be increasingly
necessary in the further course of the fifth post-Atlantean period —
it developed as a natural tendency. The child grew up, and as his
natural tendencies developed, the natural intellect — in a
certain sense — developed with them. Growing up in ordinary
conditions in a particular incarnation he either possessed an
intellect, or he did not. The latter case was considered
pathological, or at any rate abnormal, out of the common.

And so it was with heart-and-feeling. Appropriately to
the fourth post-Atlantean period heart-and-feeling developed. And
though history tells us little of such things, it is nevertheless
true that two people meeting for the first time knew how to tune in
to each other. In this respect there is a great, difference between
the preceding centuries down to the fifteenth century, and our own
time. People, then, did not pass each other by with the complete
indifference often shown nowadays. At present we are slow, as a rule,
to make friends. We must know a great deal about each other before
confidence can be established. But what is now only to be arrived at
after long acquaintance — if at all — in former
centuries, particularly during the Graeco-Roman period of
civilisation, could be won at a stroke. In virtue of their respective
individualities people were drawn rapidly together, without so much
need to exchange feelings and thoughts. Acquaintance was quickly
made, in so far as it might be good for the two persons concerned, or
necessary to a group of people forming themselves into a community.
Heart-and-feeling in the one could still reach out more spiritually
and make immediate contact with heart-and-feeling in the other. Up to
the present, through the medium of our senses, we can still
accurately distinguish the colours, and so forth, of plants; but it
will no longer be possible to do this spontaneously in the
seventh post-Atlantean epoch when learning to know nature will
necessitate special conditions. And there is a resemblance between
our actual connection with plants and human connections in the fourth
post-Atlantean epoch. We must remember that this kind of
feeling-and-heart connection was well adapted to that age, but a very
different network of feelings and sensations spans the world of
today. In the fourth post-Atlantean epoch human relationships and
undertakings depended to the greatest possible extent upon personal
contacts. The art of printing which has done so much up to now, and
will do more and more in the future, to establish impersonal
relationships, belongs to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch; and modern
terms of intercourse are such that, fundamentally speaking,
connections formed at a stroke are no longer even beneficial, and
people can only approach one another on far more impersonal grounds.

Towards this, modern man is developing; he is no longer
possessed of a ready-made heart-and-feeling with its spontaneous
reactions, nor of a penetrating intellect, but impelled by the
consciousness soul to develop something far more detached, more
individual, more dependent upon egoism, upon human loneliness
inherent in the organisation of his own body, than was the
intellectual soul or mind soul. Through the consciousness soul man is
much more an individual, a solitary traveler through the world. And
the tendency people now show to withdraw into themselves is becoming
[a] more and more pronounced characteristic of our time. The hallmark
of the consciousness soul is the urge towards an isolated life,
secluded from the rest of mankind. Hence the difficulty of getting to
know one another, especially of establishing confidence, without
the transition period of formal acquaintanceship.

The significance of all this becomes clearer if we give
due weight to the spiritual-scientific truth that in the present age
we are not thrown together by chance with other people. That the path
of life brings us into contact with certain people and not with
others depends upon the working out of individual karma. For we have
entered upon a period of human evolution which brings man's preceding
karmic developments to a culminating point. Think how much less
karma had been accumulated in the earlier periods of earth
evolution! With every incarnation fresh karma is made. At first,
people had to meet under totally new conditions, with the possibility
of forming fresh connections. But through repeated earth-lives we
have gradually reached a point at which, as a general rule, we do not
meet anyone with whom in former incarnations we have not shared
this or that experience. And these experiences bring us into contact
again with those who shared them. We meet other people as it would
appear by chance but in reality because in former incarnations we had
already met, and on the strength of this are brought together again.

Now the self-contained consciousness soul can only
develop — and its development is destined to take place in our
time — when less importance is attached to what takes place at
present between one person and another than to what works inwardly in
solitude as the result of former incarnations. In the
Graeco-Roman period two persons meeting for the first time made an
impression upon each other which worked with the immediacy of a blow.
At present, if a meeting is to take place that is to further the
development of the consciousness soul, the moving factor between
them must be what emerges in one or [the] other as the result of
previous incarnations. This takes longer than recognition at first
sight; it implies the gradual coming to the surface, little by little
in a feeling, instinctive way, of what they formerly lived through
together. What we ask today is that in becoming acquainted individual
corners should be rubbed off. Because it is in the becoming
acquainted, this rubbing off of corners, that the still unconscious,
instinctive reminiscences and after-effects of former
incarnations strike upwards. The consciousness soul can only
develop when our contacts with other people are made from within;
whereas the intellectual and mind soul develops more through
immediate contact.

What I have now described for the fifth post-Atlantean
epoch is only in its initial stage. And as the epoch continues it
will become increasingly difficult to bring ourselves into a right
relationship with others, because this demands inner development,
inner activity. A beginning has been made, but what has begun must
continue to spread and become more and more intensive. How hard it is
already in this present time for people drawn together by karma to
understand each other, perhaps because owing to other karmic
connections they have not the force instinctively to conjure up all
the relations leading over from former incarnations. Stirred by
certain after-effects of previous earth-lives, people are drawn
together in love; but other forces work against these rising
memories, and friends grow apart again. And this putting the
durability of their relationship to the test is not only for those
who meet in life as friends; it will also be increasingly
difficult for children to understand their parents, parents their
children, brothers and sisters each other. Reciprocal understanding
will become more and more difficult, because of the increasing need
to free what is karmically imprisoned within us, and to let it rise
to the surface.

Now this negative prospect of ever increasing difficulty
in reciprocal understanding in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch
requires of us that we should not dream our lives away in the dark,
nor close our eyes to the condition of evolution, because this is an
absolutely necessary condition. If the difficulty of coming to mutual
understanding were not hanging over fifth post-Atlantean humanity,
the consciousness soul could not develop, and people would have to
live their life in common dependent upon their natural tendencies.
And cultivation of individuality — which belongs to the
consciousness soul — would not be able to develop either.
This must take place. Men will have to undergo this test.

Nevertheless, if only this negative aspect of
evolutionary conditions in the fifth post-Atlantean period were to
prevail, war and strife would inevitably arise, and find their way
into even our most unimportant concerns. I need refer only to one
thing and it will be plain to all of us how the remedy is to be
sought for one of our necessary ills — for the
difficulty we find in understanding each other. I need only say —
because we are living in the age of the consciousness soul, as
the fifth post-Atlantean epoch proceeds more and more conscious
interest will have to be felt for SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING. In this term
needs are summed up which in the fourth post-Atlantean period did not
exist to at all the same extent. Anyone able accurately to study the
history of ancient Greece and Rome knows that for these peoples the
individual was not yet possessed of the abilities that can now be
made use of by European humanity, and by their American connections.
This becomes clearer if we compare human beings with an animal
species. Why do animals of the same species live, within certain
limits, harmoniously together? For through their group soul, the soul
of their species, they have this inborn faculty; it is inherent in
the species, and a matter of course. But this represents a stage of
development at which the animal remains stationary, but which man
must outgrow. Every single human being must develop himself as an
individual, and particularly in our modern age of the consciousness
soul this self-culture of the individual is one of the most important
matters. The Graeco-Roman civilisation is still coloured by a
group-soul element. We find its peoples making part of a social
order, the structure of which, though certainly derived more from
moral forces, is in itself a fixed structure and will in the fifth
post-Atlantean epoch be increasingly broken up. This group-soul
element in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch has no longer any meaning
for the fifth. A conscious form of social understanding must take its
place, proceeding from a deep knowledge of the true being of the
human individual. And it is spiritual science which will first
develop this understanding. When spiritual science blossoms more and
more out of the abstract into the concrete, into fullness of life,
among its adherents a very special knowledge of, a very special
interest in, humanity will be aroused. There will be people with
special gifts for teaching others about the different temperaments
and characterological tendencies, how this person with a particular
temperament should be taken in such a way, whereas that other person
with the same temperament but with a different trend of character
requires different treatment. These specially gifted men will say to
those who are ready to learn: “Look carefully; there is this
type of person and there is that other type, and, with each, must
deal differently.” Practical psychology, practical knowledge of
the soul, but also a practical knowledge of life, will be cultivated,
and out of this true social understanding for human development will
grow.

What have we had up to now in the shape of social
understanding? All kinds of abstract ideals, concerned with national
welfare and human happiness, this or that form of socialism, have
made their appearance. And only when certain sociological ideas are
really on the point of being put into practice, is the acknowledgment
of their impracticability forthcoming. What in the first place is
important is not to found sects and societies with fixed programmes,
but to spread the knowledge of men, notably such knowledge of human
nature as will enable us to understand the growing, developing human
being, to understand the child, and how each child develops according
to its particular individuality. In this way we shall learn so to
adjust ourselves in life that when confronted by karma with a
personal connection to be made, a connection to be drawn closer, we
shall establish a real and enduring relationship, of the kind which
can prove itself in life to be most truly fruitful. Practical
knowledge of man, practical, effectual interest in humanity, this is
what counts. Up to the present mankind has gone only a short way
along this path and with small success. For how do we judge a person
whom we meet nowadays? As being agreeable to us, or the reverse. Look
about you and you will find that this is, in most cases, the sole
criterion, or if more than one opinion is pronounced there is only
one point of view; “This man appeals to me, another does not. I
like this about so-and-so, but I do not like that.” Foregone
conclusions! We make for ourselves an idea of what someone should be,
and when we find that they differ from it we criticise. No progress
will be made towards a true practical understanding of man until we
do away with these prejudices and fancies for this person or that,
and make up our minds to take people as they are.

How often, when two people meet for the first time, one
of them arouses instantaneous antipathy in the other, whom he
dislikes so much that afterwards whatever they have to do with each
other is coloured by this dislike. As a consequence the karmic
connection between them can be entirely blotted out, or set on a
false track, and will have to be laid aside until the two meet again
in their next incarnation. Sympathy and antipathy are the greatest
enemies of true social interests, though only too little heed is
paid to the fact. But to anyone deeply aware of the importance of
true social understanding for the further development of
mankind, it is distressing to watch the effect teachers in a
school often have upon their pupils, when out of prejudice they show
preference for one rather than another, whereas it is important to
take each of them as he is able and to make the very most of that.

But here we are up against regulations. Our regulations
and social laws often so implacably wipe out individuality in the
teacher himself, that any real effort to uphold individuality as such
is impossible.

Understanding for spiritual science would cause
practical knowledge of the human soul and practical knowledge of man
to become matters of general interest. This is a necessity for social
understanding if it is, to some extent, to create the opposite pole
to the difficulty of understanding one another. It is what must come
in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch of the consciousness soul is to
develop fully. Man must go through trials and provings, for the
opposing forces set snares in our way. And accordingly feelings of
sympathy and antipathy will be widespread, and it is only by
consciously combating these superficial feelings that we shall bring
the consciousness soul safely to birth. Social understanding between
man and man will also be more and more powerfully opposed by those
nationalistic feelings and emotions, which only assumed their present
form in the nineteenth century but are gaining the upper hand more
and more. And since good is to be found only in the overcoming of
them, these national antagonisms, these national sympathies and
antipathies,[as they arise] are so strong that they are fearful
testings for mankind. Were they to gain the upper hand, as they bid
fair to do, we should dream away the development of the consciousness
soul, because nationalism works in the opposite direction, and
stands in the way of man's independence by tending to make of him a
mere reflection of this or that national group. This is the first
thing to bear in mind if we want the otherwise empty saying to become
a reality in our souls: that the fifth post-Atlantean epoch is in
particular for the development of the consciousness soul. And further
to this development: if as individualism increases religion does not
adapt itself to the needs of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, but
remains as it was suitable for the fourth post-Atlantean period, a
certain drying up of the religious life must take place.

Religious groups were bound to arise in the fourth
post-Atlantean epoch because at that time mankind lived more as
groups. It was necessary for authority to pour out dogmas, principles
of religion, religious thought, upon groups of people, as common to
them all. But because the urge to develop individuality through the
consciousness soul in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch is becoming
stronger and stronger, that which speaks out of the group religions
can no longer find its way to human hearts, and individual human
souls. And what comes from these group religions will simply not be
understood. In the fourth post-Atlantean epoch it was still possible
out of the group to teach people about Christ. But in the fifth
period Christ is already actually entering the individual soul.
Already, unconsciously or subconsciously, we all carry Christ within
us. But through ourselves alone we must find the way to understand
Him anew. This will not come from the imposing of fixed dogmas, only
from doing all we can to further what will make Christ universally
comprehensible, to further the spread of universal religious
knowledge in general, and to search out everything which can
work to this end. Hence in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch the need
for more and more tolerance, particularly where thought in connection
with religious experience is concerned. And whereas in the fourth
post-Atlantean epoch those who worked to spread religious truths did
so by imposing certain dogmas and fixed principles, in the fifth
period this must all completely change. It is a question of
something entirely different. Because men are becoming more and more
individual an attempt should be made for anyone to describe his inner
experiences completely freed from dogma to another, in such a way
that the latter might also be able to develop his own free life of
religious thought as an individual. It is a fact that dogmatic
religion, the fixed dogmas of the religious confessions, will kill
the religious life of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. So that a fresh
start from this age must consist in making it clear that in the first
centuries of the Christian era this or that may have been adapted to
man's development at the time, and that in the following centuries
something different is needed. Also that there are different
religions. We must try to make the essential nature of the different
religions intelligible, to make clear different aspects of the
Christ-conception. In this way we bring to every soul what it
requires for its particular deepening. But we do not ourselves
intervene in the moulding of the soul; we leave the soul, especially
in the sphere of religion, its own liberty of thinking and scope to
unfold this liberty.

Just as social understanding is necessary for the fifth
post-Atlantean period at the point I have described, so is liberty of
thought on religious grounds a fundamental condition for the
development of the consciousness soul. SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING IN THE
SPHERE OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS. LIBERTY OF THOUGHT IN THE SPHERE OF
RELIGION — of the religious life.

This effort of ours to understand the religious aspect
of life more and more, to penetrate it, and by so doing to come to
terms with our fellow men even though each of them may have his own
religious life to unfold, must be kept clearly in view because it is
a basic need of the fifth post-Atlantean period and something
humanity must acquire by consciously drawing upon their own strength.
In this very age of the consciousness soul, the ahrimanic powers are
most fiercely renewing their attack upon liberty of thought —
the nerve and sinew in the stream of the spiritual scientific
conception of life — and we know what opposition it encounters
from the religious confessions in general, and what calumnies are
directed from every side upon spiritual science, on account of its
complete and luminous acceptance of the birth of the consciousness
soul, and its refusal to take part in propagating the kind of
religious life which is still dependent upon the support of the
intellectual or mind soul, as in the fourth post-Atlantean period.
The various forms assumed by Christianity were established in the
fourth post-Atlantean period according to the requirements of
the Graeco-Roman civilisation. As Church-forms they are already
unsuitable and will become ever more unsuitable for the growth of
free thought which must take place.

And in the age which prompted by modern life feels the
first stirrings of a need to think freely, we find the opposing power
at work in the so-called Jesuitism of the different religions —
although much comes under this heading which would have to be
described in detail. It is actually brought to life in order that the
strongest possible resistance may be offered to liberty of thought,
so vital a necessity for the fifth post-Atlantean period. It will
become more and more necessary to exterminate Jesuitism, the enemy in
the fifth post-Atlantean epoch of free thinking, because from
religion outwards liberty of thought must spread over every sphere of
life. But as it must be striven for independently, mankind is put, as
it were, to the proof, and difficulties spring up everywhere. These
difficulties will increase as men of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch
advance towards clear consciousness, yet feeling this at first to be
a disadvantage, and in many respects stupefying themselves.

So we find the clash of sharp conflict between
germinating liberty of thought and the principle of authority
which works into our times like a hang-over from the past. And there
is a passion for dulling the consciousness and for self-deception
where belief in authority is concerned. In our time putting faith in
authority has become so great and so intensified that under its
influence people are losing their power of judgment. In the fourth
post-Atlantean epoch they were endowed by nature with sound
understanding; now they must acquire it, develop it, and their belief
in authority holds them back from doing so. We are becoming bound
hand and foot to our belief in authority. Only think how helpless
human beings appear when compared to the unreasoning animal creation!
How completely the animal is guided by instincts which lead it in a
sound way even from sickness back to health; whereas modern man
fights against sound judgment in this respect and submits himself
entirely to authority. He has very little wish to acquire discernment
for healthy conditions of living, although it is true that
praiseworthy efforts are made in this direction by various societies
and institutions. But these efforts need to be very much
intensified; above all we must realise that we have increasingly
to contend with our own trust in authority, and that whole theories
are being built up which in their turn will become the basis of
convictions only serving to uphold belief in authority.

In medicine, in law and in every other sphere people
declare themselves from the outset incompetent to judge, and accept
what science tells them. The complications of modern life make this
understandable. But under the pressure of authority we shall become
more and more helpless. And systematically to build up this
force of authority, this habit of authority, is actually the
principle of Jesuitism. And Jesuitism in the Catholic religion
is only a special instance of other less noticeable performances in
other directions. It begins in the sphere of ecclesiastical dogma
with the tendency to uphold papal authority projected over from the
fourth post-Atlantean period into the fifth where it can do no good.
But the same Jesuitical principle will gradually transfer itself to
other spheres of life. In a form hardly differing from the Jesuitism
of dogmatic religion, we already find it in medical circles where a
certain dogmatism strives after more power for the medical
profession. This is typical of Jesuitical aspiration everywhere; and
it will grow stronger and stronger. People will find themselves more
and more tied down by what authority imposes upon them. And in face
of this ahrimanic opposition — for such it is — salvation
for the fifth post-Atlantean epoch will be found in asserting the
rights of the consciousness soul which is wishing to develop. But
as the gift of reason is no longer bestowed upon us like our two arms
by Nature, as was still to some extent the case in the fourth
post-Atlantean epoch, this can only come about through our good will
to develop the faculties of understanding and sound judgment. The
development of the consciousness soul demands liberty of thought; and
this can flourish only in a particular aura, in a certain atmosphere.

I have pointed out that the fifth post-Atlantean epoch
is beset with difficulties on account of its pressing forward in a
certain direction, to the development of the consciousness soul.
The consciousness soul — just because it should develop as such
— must encounter opposition and pass through trials. We see
what tremendous and growing opposition there is to social
understanding and liberty of thought. But this opposition is not
acknowledged to be such; it is looked upon in the most extensive
circles as right and proper, as something in no way to be
condemned but on the contrary most carefully to be fostered.

There are, however, a great many people whose sincerity
and clear vision make them fully aware of what dangers modern man is
exposed to and who have a keen sense for what is already plain to
see: that karmic connections having entered the period of crisis
described above, the moment has come when parents and children,
brothers and sister peoples and nations will no longer understand
each other. There are already a sufficient number of people who
realise that these necessary conditions can work for good only when
they are faced with the understanding which rises from the very life
of the heart. For the impulse for this new world-working must be
consciously wrung out of the heart's blood. What comes spontaneously
brings estrangement between individuals. We must consciously strive
after what springs from the human heart. Every single soul has
difficulties to encounter in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch because
the consciousness soul can develop only through the testing
occasioned by the overcoming of these difficulties.

How often nowadays one hears: “I don't know what
to do with myself, I don't know how to organise my life.” This
comes from inability to see clearly what the needs of the present
time are, and what man's position is with regard to them. Many people
are reduced by existing conditions to physical illness, physical
strain and loss of balance. And a real understanding for this must be
more and more intensively cultivated because what threatens us,
and is at the same time a necessity for the fifth post-Atlantean
epoch, is the danger of DESTITUTION OF SOUL — destitution of
the particular “shade” described in today's lecture. Many
people see what this means and feel how necessary it is that we
should come to social understanding on the one hand and liberty of
thought on the other. But today very few are inclined to make use of
the right means to this end. For social understanding, what would be
necessary to achieve it, is only too often served by a hotch-potch
[hodge-podge? — e.Ed] of high-sounding phrases. There is a lot
of talk nowadays about the necessity for the individual treatment of
the growing child. What long-winded theories are devised in every
branch of pedagogy! Very little of this is to the point. Whereas an
intelligent circulation of as many positive descriptions as possible
of how the human being actually develops, a positive natural history
of individual development, is needed. Wherever possible we should
describe how the human beings A, B and C have developed and enter
lovingly into such human development as takes place before our
eyes — this is what we need. Above all the study of life is
necessary, the will to gain knowledge of life itself, rather than to
make out programmes. The theoretical programme is the enemy of the
fifth post-Atlantean epoch of culture.

Now when a society is formed, this should take place in
accordance with the aims of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. This
means that the members of it must constitute the chief reason for its
existence, and the exchange of ideas between these actual men should
yield the best results possible; and if sufficient attention is given
to this, very individual results will show themselves. At present,
what is the usual procedure? It begins with a drawing up of rules.
This can be quite good, and may be necessary, because external
conditions demand rules and regulations. But on our own ground we
must be very clear that talk about programmes and regulations is
merely a concession to the outside world; that what concerns us must
be the life in common as individuals, what issues from actual human
beings; that reciprocal understanding is what counts. This will make
it possible even in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch — which has
centuries yet before it — that from among those who understand
such things, understanding could go forth for vital individual
development in the world generally, which at present puts everything
into sections and regulations as if into a straight jacket. From
thence come the high-sounding doctrines which from pulpit and
platform proclaim the art of living. Theories crop up on every hand,
dripping with abstractions and demonstrating every imaginable idea
and ideal. So importance can be attached to them, but only to what is
concrete, and to a comprehending penetration of the actualities of
life. How can this come about?

It stands to reason that to what has been said the
following objections would be justified: “Yes, indeed —
but we are not qualified to pronounce an opinion upon what experts
nowadays officially give out. Only consider” — it might
be objected — “what the medical student has to learn!
That he should learn it is right and proper, but we could not; and
then add to this what the lawyer must know, and the art student, and
so on.” — It is certainly out of the question that we
should learn these things; but we are not called upon to be creative,
we need only be capable of judging. We must allow the expert to
create, but we must be able to criticise the expert. And this faculty
of judgment we shall not acquire by specialising, but only by
cultivating in an all-round way our powers of understanding and our
faculty of judgment. This, however, can never come about through
expert knowledge in some particular branch of science, but only
through the all-embracing knowledge of the Spirit.

Spiritual science must be the centre around which all
the sciences revolve; for it not only throws light upon the
connections in human evolution, but the way of thinking peculiar to
it develops in us sound understanding, and this must be produced and
given out from far deeper depths than during the Graeco-Roman
civilisation of the fourth post-Atlantean epoch. The construction of
concepts and representations necessary for spiritual science,
and peculiar to it, does not qualify us to become experts in any
particular sphere, but it gives us the power of judging. And the
reason for this will become more and more plain to see. There are
mysterious forces in the human soul, and these forces, these mystery
forces, will link the human soul with the spiritual world, and
through our participation in spiritual science this link will enable
us to use our judgment when we stand in the presence of authority. We
shall not have expert knowledge but when in certain cases the expert
acts on the strength of what he knows, we shall be able to form our
own judgment about it.

Emphasis must be laid upon the fact that spiritual
science not only teaches us but in this connection develops our
faculty of judgment — that is to say, it makes possible and
fosters the freedom and independence of our thinking. Spiritual
science may not qualify us to enter the medical profession, but if we
can penetrate to its reality it makes us capable of forming a right
judgment upon the results of medicine in public life. If what I mean
by this could once be fully understood, there would be understanding
as well for the many, many life-giving forces of the fifth
post-Atlantean epoch. For very much is contained in what I mean by
saying that spiritual science will, as it were, remodel the human
Intellect in such a way that man's critical faculty may be able to
unfold itself, and in releasing his intellectual life from the
life of his soul he may be able to develop true liberty of thought.

I should like now, if you will allow me, to put these
thoughts before you in a more pictorial, imaginative way» We
are told in spiritual science of a concrete spiritual world; of
elemental beings surrounding us; of the Hierarchies, Angels,
Archangels and so forth. The world becomes peopled for us with real
spiritual content, spiritual forces and spiritual beings. That we
should know nothing about these spiritual beings is no longer a
matter of indifference to them as to some extent it still was in the
fourth post-Atlantean period. But if in the fifth post-Atlantean
epoch men on earth know nothing about them it is as though, a part of
their spiritual nourishment was being withheld. The spiritual world
is in close communication with our present physical world of earth.
You will understand this better when I tell you something which may
seem strange now, but is quite simply true; and although at present
it is still not possible to say very much, yet certain truths must be
given out because humanity should no longer be without them.

From the point of view of humanity on earth we are
perfectly justified in saying: With the Mystery of Golgotha
Christ entered earth-life, and He has remained in earth-life since
then; and from this point of view we can feel it as good fortune for
earth-life that Christ should have entered it. But now let us
consider this from the standpoint of the Angels — which is no
invention of mine, but follows as a reality from occult investigation
— let us transfer ourselves to the standpoint of the Angels.
Their experience in the spiritual sphere was quite different, it was
the reverse of ours. Christ left the sphere of the Angels to come to
mankind; He forsook their world. Speaking for themselves they could
say: Christ left our world to go through the Mystery of Golgotha. And
they would have as much reason to sorrow over this as we have to
rejoice that Christ in His healing power should have come to us in as
far as we live on earth in our physical bodies. This is a real train
of thought, and anyone with actual knowledge of the spiritual world
knows that there is only one way for the Angels to find solace, and I
described it rightly when I said that men on earth in their physical
bodies should live with the Christ-thought in such a way that it can
shine upwards as a light to the Angels — since the Mystery of
Golgotha — shine up to the Angels as a light. Men say: Christ
has entered into us, and we can develop in such a way that He will be
able to dwell in us — “not I, but Christ in me.”
The Angels say: Christ has gone from the sphere of our inner life,
and He shines up to us now like so many stars in the Christ-thought
of individual men; He shines up to us since the Mystery of Golgotha,
and there we find Him again. There is a real connection between
the spiritual world and the human world. And this is also shown by
the fact that the spiritual beings who apart from ourselves inhabit
the spiritual world look with satisfaction and approval upon our
thoughts about their world. They can help us only if we think about
them; and although we may not have attained to clairvoyant vision
into the spiritual world, if we know about these spiritual beings
they can help us. In return for our study of spiritual science help
comes to us from the spiritual world. It is not merely the things we
learn, the knowledge we acquire, it is the beings of the higher
Hierarchies themselves who help us when we know about them. And if in
future, as the fifth post-Atlantean epoch proceeds, we face the
authority of the expert, it will be good to have behind us not only
our own human understanding but also what the spiritual beings are
able to weave into it through our knowing about them. They qualify us
to confront authority with sound judgment. The spiritual world helps
us. We have need of it, we must know about it, and unite ourselves
with it through conscious understanding. This is the third thing
which must come to pass in the fifth post-Atlantean period.

The first is:

RECIPROCAL
UNDERSTANDING IN SOCIAL LIFE.

The second:

THE ACQUIRING OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT.

The third:

LIVING
KNOWLEDGE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS THROUGH SPIRITUAL SCIENCE.

These three things must be the great true ideals of the
fifth post-Atlantean epoch. We must have reciprocal understanding
in the social sphere, liberty of thought in religion and in the other
branches of community life; and in the sphere of knowledge we must
have knowledge of the spiritual worlds.

SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING, LIBERTY OF THOUGHT, KNOWLEDGE OF
THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS. These are the three great aims and impulses of
the fifth post-Atlantean period. In the light of these impulses we
must develop, for they are the true lights of our time. Many people
feel strongly that some change is necessary, particularly in the
social sphere where a quite different way of living must be adopted,
and that we must have different concepts. But out of ignorance or
unwillingness they evade the ultimate conclusions. This can be seen
from the attitude of so many towards the aspirations of spiritual
science. And here we need not confine ourselves to deliberately
malicious calumny of it or of Theosophy. We need only consider the
sincere will that abounds among men today, sincere will that aims at
the creation of impulses tending in the direction post-Atlantean
humanity should take.

Only think how many reformers there are in every sphere,
pastors and preachers on social matters; preachers too who do not
belong to theological or religious circles. How they all take the
floor! And often prompted by the best will possible. How is that to
lead humanity in the direction towards which modern life is striving
today? Good intentions are to be found everywhere, so let us for the
moment consider what comes, not from bad intentions, but from good.
And yet these good intentions do not help so long as they consist
only in vague talk, however warm the feelings which underlie it;
because the three great true ideals of human understanding,
liberty of thought and knowledge of the spiritual worlds cannot reach
fulfilment unless the knowledge which comes only from spiritual
science is quickened into life. At present, however, except for the
little company rallied round the spiritual-scientific conception of
the world, understanding for such things has not yet reached even its
initial stage.

But we come nowadays upon fine and lofty theories
tending in this direction. And, as an example, I should like to tell
you of something which happened — “by chance”, as
we say — to myself. Actually it came about through karma that
looking one day into a shop window my eye was caught by the title of
a little book which I bought. The subject of it is modern man, what
he is in search of, under what impressions he grows up; it describes
the many advantages of modern times which make life easy and
comfortable — the convenience of steam and electricity, and so
on — all set forth in detail. Emphasis is laid upon the jostle
and rush of modern life, but also upon its increased possibilities;
allusion is made to the outstanding discoveries and inventions
of our time in comparison with the duller, poorer, more instinctive
way of living in former times — all this is described with a
kind of fervour and delight. But then follows a description of the
difficulties of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, which I have pointed
out today, only without any indication that these things proceed from
the peculiarities of the age itself and its demand that the
consciousness soul should be developed. What stands out is a complete
lack of clear vision, in spite of an open compassionate heart. I will
quote: “It is strange that a description of our modern
civilisation, which begins on a high note of joy in existence, must
end upon the deep note of inner destitution of soul. What we
experience here in a small way” (he means by ‘a small
way’ the place where he lives) “is in a far greater sense
the experience of our age. An abundance of culture beyond compare, a
display of beauty and power in life scarcely to be equaled in
history, and side by side with it all a spiritual destitution
mounting upwards to lay hold on every class.”

And now, having given evidence of so much perspicacity,
the author goes on to review various possibilities whereby the true
impulse in modern humanity may find its right outlet. And among
these possibilities, Theosophy, as he sees it, comes into
consideration. Here, among its many enemies, we find a well-wisher of
Theosophy, someone who with all good-will takes the trouble to
interest himself in it and for this reason claims our attention.
Indeed it is not without good reason that I bring these things to
your notice; it is essential that we should concern ourselves with
what are the positive connections of spiritual science with the
outside world.

After passing “pseudo mysticism” in review
as a means of deepening life and as a remedy for destitution of soul,
the writer goes on to say; “Theosophy is a near neighbour to
mysticism. Many people see it only as a substitute for more
trustworthy forces, or as a tendency to syncretism or to eclecticism”
— that is to say a hotch-potch [hodge-podge, again —
e.Ed] of religious confessions and world-conceptions, just as
people who do not wish to go into spiritual science call it warmed-up
gnosticism and so on. But the author of this book goes a step
further, for he says; “Those who see it only as a tendency to
syncretism and eclecticism, equivalent to individual
inclinations, confuse it with still more doubtful symptoms of modern
life such as superstition, spiritualism, apparitions, symbolism and
similar trifling with the mystery-loving element in human nature. But
this is not the case. We do this Movement an injustice by refusing to
acknowledge its deep inner connections and values,” —
Thus we stand indeed in the presence of a well-wisher. — He
continues: “Where Steiner's circle at least is concerned, we
must try to understand it as a contemporary religious Movement,
although perhaps more syncretic than original, but going to the roots
of all life.” Let us hope that as this man shows so much
goodwill, he may yet find his way to the “originality” of
our Movement. “We may look upon it as a Movement dedicated to
the satisfying of man's super-sensible interests, and therefore as
having outgrown the realism attached to the senses. Above all we may
recognise it as a Movement which exhorts men to consider their
moral problems, to work for inner re-birth through scrupulous
concentration upon self-education.” As I have already said; I
am not reading this to you out of silly sentimentality, but
considering the many things said from other points of view about
Anthroposophy, it seems not irrelevant that we should make ourselves
acquainted with a criticism such as this: — “One has only
to read Steiner’s book on Theosophy to be struck by the
earnestness with which he enjoins upon his readers the necessity for
purification and self-improvement. The speculations contained in
it upon the super-sensible are in themselves a reaction to
materialism; of course” — and now comes something to
which I must beg that you will pay particular attention — “here
the book loses touch with reality, and soars into the realms of
hypothesis and clairvoyant fantasy, into a world of dreams in
which there is no place for the realities of individual and social
life. Nevertheless theosophy must be registered as a corrective
phenomenon in the cultural progress of our time.”

And so there is just one thing to which the author of
this book takes exception, and that is the ascent, to knowledge
of the spirit, to concrete knowledge of the spirit; which means that
he would be glad of the impulse towards man's moral improvement
which, by his own showing, springs from Theosophy, but he does not
yet understand that for the fifth post-Atlantean epoch moral
improvement can only come about through concrete spiritual knowledge.
He cannot perceive the roots, and he wants the fruits without
them. His range of vision cannot embrace the whole connection. And he
is so extraordinarily interesting for just this reason: that, as we
see, he has given deep thought to the study of my book “Theosophy”
and yet cannot understand that the one is impossible without the
other. He would like to cut off the book's head and keep its body
because the latter he feels to be important.

This bears out what I have been sayings that such people
acknowledge the need for social understanding and liberty of thought
— this they understand; but that the third, namely, knowledge
of the spirit, must form the basis of our fifth post-Atlantean epoch
they are not willing to admit; it is something they cannot rise to.
And one of the most important tasks in the world-conception of
spiritual science is to arouse understanding for this. People often
say that rising to the spiritual worlds is a fantastic illusion. They
do not see that it is the loss of this knowledge which has
brought materialism upon us, with the incapacity for social
understanding to which it is allied, with the materialistic way of
living, and attitude towards life. And it is by studying our
well-wishers that we can realise how difficult it is for people to
admit the existence of concrete spiritual worlds. Because of this we
must try the harder to gain understanding for such impulses as those
I have brought forward today in my lecture.

The title of the little book I mentioned is “Die
Gedankenwelt des Gebildeten, Probleme and Aufgaben” by Prof.
Dr. Friedrich Mahling, published in Hamburg in 1914, and it is the
reprint of a lecture given by Dr. Mahling at Hamburg on the 23rd
September 1913, during the 37th Congress for the Inner Mission. I am
only surprised that no one in our circle has ever mentioned the book,
for since its publication in 1914 it might easily have come under the
notice of any one of us. And although it is important to concern
ourselves with the various crossing and re-crossing threads between
different spheres of thought at this present time, and with the
various shades of abuse and mockery by which our Movement is
attacked, we ought also to interest ourselves when, for once in a way
as in this case, we are met by an honest effort to understand, and
when we could learn from it something about the difficulties such an
effort encounters.

The purpose of this lecture has been to point out what
should be the three great concrete Ideals of our fifth post-Atlantean
epoch; reciprocal understanding in social life, liberty of thought,
knowledge of the Spirit. In the future it will be for these three
great ideals to direct the sciences. It will be for them to refine
and purify life, to inspire morality with fresh impulses, to direct,
penetrate and further the life of modern humanity to the greatest
extent possible. But the first two demands, social understanding
and liberty of thought, cannot be satisfied unless the third,
knowledge of the Spirit, is added to them, because the consciousness
soul should be developed. And the highest stage of the consciousness
soul is the spirit-self, the natural predisposition for which
will appear in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch. But it cannot develop
without the preparatory stage of inner self-dependence, only to be
attained by man through the unfolding of the consciousness soul. And
we must remind ourselves as part of our endeavour in spiritual
science that what may seem to us abstract truths have in them magic
power which has only to be released for clear light to pour over the
whole of life. And wherever we are placed, as scientists or practical
workers in whatever sphere, however small our part, if we know how to
quicken into life, for whatever that sphere may be, the abstract
truths we take in during our meetings, we shall be fellow-workers at
the greatest tasks of our time. And our souls will then be filled
with a gladness which is not superficial good cheer, but has its part
in the life-giving seriousness that increases our strength; and
instead of allowing life to degenerate into a mere excuse for
enjoyment makes of us true workers in life.

In this sense the three great concrete social ideals and
ideals of cognition will enable the consciousness soul in the fifth
post-Atlantean period to understand the Mystery of Golgotha, and to
receive Christ in a new way. For we forge a real link with the
spiritual worlds by learning to know how these worlds also stand to
the central impulse of earth evolution, to the Christ impulse. The
Christ impulse will become our real link with the spiritual worlds
under the influence of the thoughts which stream from them
earthwards, and which we offer up again in our thinking about Christ;
because in earth existence since the Mystery of Golgotha the thoughts
of human souls shine upwards consolingly like bright stars, as I have
described, even to the world of the angels who lost Christ from their
sphere in order that they might find Him again shining up to them
from the sphere of human thinking.

No, knowledge of the Spirit may not be described as
fantastic. It is knowledge of the Spirit which first, of all
endeavours to find a way of influencing the actual conditions under
which destitution of soul, necessarily bound up with the fifth
post-Atlantean epoch, arises. It is of these things that I wished to
speak to you today. Let us hope that we may meet again here at a not
too distant date, and that until then we may be united in thought and
continue to work in the spirit of our Movement.